Descending Mt Wellington into the floor talk

Hobart reminded Archie and I of Toowoomba, while Hobart and Launceston reminded Damian of Newtown during the nineties. The exhibition is in a large part about this experience – as a kind of constant tourist. When do we ever encounter a place in isolation to the landscapes we’ve experienced previously? It usually takes some time before a place develops its own identity independent of other spaces.

In retrospect, I’m not sure what I expected, but for some reason I’d presumed that there would be some mid-height buildings and density or people living in the city as with the other capitals. Instead, the city is a kind of outpost set against Mt Wellington and you can see the sky, like Toowoomba. And there were buildings that were so much older than any elsewhere in Australia, bypassed by the destructive forces of the eighties boom. So well built too. According to Damian, it’s amazing what you can achieve with a captive work force. Regardless, we had an awesome time in Tasmania overall, everyone was so hospitable, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to return.

The full colour exhibition catalogue, designed by Melanie Schafer and with a foreword by Kevin O’Brien, can be viewed online at www.castgallery.org and documentation of the floor talk with Archie Moore and myself may be viewed at CAST, Hobart.

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